NPS – Family Pension to family of deceased NPS Employees

(b) and (c): The pension of the Government servants (except in the Armed Forces) appointed on or after 01-01-2004 is regulated by the NPS which is a defined contribution pension system. Employees appointed in the service of Central Government prior to this date are not covered by NPS. However, even after the introduction of NPS, the benefit of family pension is available to the families of the deceased Central Government employees covered under the NPS. Hence, family pension, at the rate of old pension scheme, to family members of deceased employees, who were in the service of the Central Government on or after 01-01-2004, is not denied or affected due to the implementation of NPS, as per the Office Memorandum (OM) No. 38/41/06/P&PW(A) dated 05-05-2009 of the Department of Pension and Pensioners Welfare, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions. This OM envisages payment of various benefits on death/discharge of a Government employee after adjustment of the monthly annuitised pension from the accumulated funds in the NPS account of the employee.

(d) and (e): National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) has informed that a few deceased employees, who passed away within a short span after joining NPS, had minimal accumulated pension wealth in their NPS accounts. However, as stated in reply to parts (b) and (c) above, the family members of the deceased employees are covered by the family pension.